VAXINE

Vaxine is a game for Amiga 500 developed by the Assembly Line and produced by U.S.Gold back at 1990…

SCENARIO
Inside the human body, a constant war rages between invading virus cells
and the body’s own defence mechanisms.

Most of the time the body easily repels these marauders, but just occasionally a stronger – mutant -strain of virus appears putting the body’s own defences under threat of being overwhelmed. When this happens we use artificial mechanisms to
protect the body and Vaxine puts you in control of the newest devices.
The invading cells appear and gradually bond together until they are
strong enough to attack certain key body cells. If the invaders are
not eliminated before they latch onto these calls, they will not only
destroy them but also use the constituent parts to make more of them-
selves. If all of these key body cells were to be destroyed, life
could no longer be supported, and – inevitably – the game would be over.
By attacking the invaders with colour coded anti-bodies, the player can
eliminate them and even use their proteins to make more antibodies in
just the same way that the invaders use body cell mather. Futhermore,
the player can send out DNA STANDARS which find an enemy cell, attach
to it and then wait for the enemy calls to bond together before
destroying all of the enemy calls. As the game progresses the invasion
force grows stronger; how long before life can no longer be maintained?
Vaxine has an infinite number of increasingly difficult levels in which
reflex, skill and strategy are the only resources which allow the
survival of the host.

HOW TO PLAY VAXINE
Before every game, a menu appears to allow you to set up the game
as you prefer. Use the joystick/mouse/cursor keys(PC)to select your
controller, difficulty level and preferred shot type – inertia or
no inertia. Shots fired with inertia have your speed of motion
forward, backward, left and right imparted to them. Shots without
inertia will fly straight forward. The choice is yours. Players
who have never played Vaxine before, can use PRACTICT mode. Here
, the enemy cells never attack your bases, so there is no time
pressure. Use this mode to practice moving and firing until
you are skilled enough to try the main game. Players who have
mastered the first few rounds may prefer to select ADVANCED mode
which starts the game off at level 10.(Atari STE owners can also
use the opening menu to select a specially enhanced mode colour and
better sound effect. Curious ST owners should note however that
selecting this mode will crash a conventional ST.)
Vaxine starts on a checkerboard grid, upon which the whole game
takes piace. It is easiest to move around this grid using a mouse
, but you can use a joystick if you prefer. The object of the game
is to survive each level by destroying all enemy cells which apear,
before they bond together and destroy aa your base cells. The game
ends if all your bases are destroyed, or if one of your three ammo
streams reaches zero. To destroy enemy cells, shoot of them using the
left mouse/fire button; BUT – you will only destroy a cell if you hit
it with a shot of the some colour. How do you know which colour shot
you are about to fire? Look at the ammo readout at the top of the
screen:it shows how many shots of the currenfly selected colour your
have left.It changes colour when you change shot, by clicking the
right mouse button/SPACE BAR. You have three different shot colour
to choose from.

STATUS LINE
At the top of the screen are a number of items that provide assential
information. On the top left is your score. In the centre is the ammo
bar descibed above and to the right are two numbers. The first of
three shows the number of enemy cells in the currenfly selected colour
which are on the grid. The second shows the total number(all three
colours of bases remaining. (you begin with nine).

AMMO RECHARGING
If you shot an enemy cell with the wrong colour shot. It will not be
destroyed end will continue its evil business. However, the resulting
energy reaction creates a star which bounces on the spot three times
before disappearing. If you shoot this star you will gain more ammo
– 8 shots if shot with the same colour cell, only 3 shots if shot
with a diffent colour cell. Nothing comes free though; if the star
disappears without being shot you will lose five shots of that colour.
If you fall low on ammo in the middle of the level you must recharges
your ammo level in this way; if any one of your ammo levels fall to
zero, then you cannot possible defend your bases properly and the game
is automatically over.

THE STAR TREE
To make life slightly easier on the ammo front, there is a short “grace”
period of the start of every level. This is shown by a timer at the top
right of the screen counting down to zero. Immediately in front of your
is a star tree – a source of free ammo to help you through the level.
Just pick off the stars one by one. Remember that as soon as the timer
reaches zero, the “grace” period is over and the bad guys will start to
appear.

THE ENEMY CELLS
Nasty, evil things with only one aim in life: to bond together in groups
of three or more, seek out one of your perfectly innocent base cells
and suck the life from them to make more of their own kind. Try to
destroy enemy cells before they even join together: they’re harder to
hit when they are joined by strings and even harder to hit when
bouncing around one of your bases just prior to destroying it. To help
you know what they are up to behind your back, we’ve included sampled
sound effects to warn you whenever they:- Materialise (a raising siren
sound), Join together (a slurp sound) or attack one of your bases (a
low resonance sweep sound). As well as the normal enemy cells, later
levels feature two additional species: the Hatcher appears as three
differently coloured cells bonded together. When any one of them is
shot, the whole thing splits up into a whole mess of individual cells.
Worse still, if you haven’t located and destroyed a Hatcher after a
period of time, it explodes of its own accord and makes even more cells
than if it had been shot. Spitters will also appear if you take to long
finishing a level. No sneaky waiting there’s only one enemy cell left
and racking up the points by continuously making stars. Spitters, as
the name suggests, roam the grid, spitting out new enemy cells from
time to time. The longer you take, the more appear and the more enemy
cells each one of them will produce.

PSYCHIC RADAR
Another useful way of locating enemy cells is with the radar function.
Periodically you will see a wold appear on the grid ahead of you. This
message is an indicator of the direction -(ahead, back, left or right)
of the closest cell whose colour matches the shot type you are using.
This particular radar system aslo assumes that there are times when
you wan’t want to be bothered with it, for example when you are
battling with an eight-ball cluster. So, it only shows up when it thinks
you are lost. It decides this by seeing how long it’s been since you
last moved the mouse/joystick/pressed a key, so if you need any help
wait for a second or so and if will appear.

THE PORTAL
When moving around the grid, every so often you will see solid black
slabs emerge from the ground (or retract back into the ground).
These are portals. If you move througt a portal, when you emerge on
the other side everything will have frozen. You can move around the
grid freely, but all of the enemy cells, stars, frogments of explosion
and so on, are suspended in mid air. This state of affairs continues
until either the timer reaches zero or you fire a shot. This is so that
if things are going badly wrong somewhere. You can use a portal to
suspend the action until you’ve located the trouble spot. Naturally
there’s a price to be paid for this. Everytime you use the portal the
enemy cells get meaner, as if the action had been shifted up a level.
So if you use a portal twice on level three, the aggresion of the enemy
cells will be that of level five.

DNA STRINGS
Another weapon which can be used in the fight against disease and
destruction in the DNA STRAND. Hold down the right button/spacebar
and press the left button/fire. With every press, a shot is fired
attached by elastic to the previous one. If you pause too long, or
let go of the right button/Spacebar the sting of cells you have fired
will be released and wander off around the grid. The advantage of
these strands is that they appear to the enemy as “one of their own”.
Every up. There are two disadvantages: the first is that they cost
five times as much as normal shots (ie. five units gone from the ammo
readout). The second is that they have no intelligence of their own;
they merely wait to be approached by an enemy cell. So you must decide
when, it is worth launching them.

SAVED AGAIN
Through the miracles of modern science, your job has been made slightly
easier by virtue of the fact that at the beginning of every fifth level
, all of your bases are restored and you will have the opportunity to
increase your ammo levels in the “Shooting Stars” sequence. In this
bonus level dozens of ammo-storing stars swirl on to the screen in front
of you. Get as many of them as you can (with the same colour shot
preferably, for maximum ammo top-up) and then continue on…………

PLAYING TIPS
* Levels one and two are relatively easy because there are only a few enemy
cells – not enough to attack your bases. The Spitters will not appear for
a long time. Use these levels to practice moving around the grid and
shooting accurately.

*Spitter are very difficult to shoot because they stay on the ground and in
the time it takes to line one up and destroy it, several balls could have
been released. On the higher levels they appear more quickly and in
greater numbers. Time, is of the essence.

*When enemy cells attack a base, you have a few seconds to try and destroy
them. You have only got to hit one of them, and all of the others disperse
back onto the grid as individual cells.

*Futher in the game, your ammo levels will become crucial. So on the early
levels it is worth amassing as much ammo as possible.

*A level will not end until your last shot has disappeared. This feature
can be exploited to shoot any stars remaining on the star tree at the
end of a level.